2008: November - December

A free-form list for a free-form show: Twenty Years of Call It Thing

A free-form list for a free-form show:

Twenty Years of Call It Thing

by Kevin “Moondog” O’Toole

Hi, folks! It’s been twenty years that I have been with WWUH as of this November. I haven’t had time to cook up a properly organized list of favrite things of the past twenty years, so allow me to free associate a list in no particular order.

Thelonious Monk – Monk (Fantasy), Genius of Modern Music Volume 1 or 2 (Blue Note) and Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane – Monk/Trane (Milestone). My good friend Warren Byrd (himself a notable musician with Saskia Laroo, The Afro-Semitic Experience (with David Chevan) and on his own) firsat busted out the classic Thelonious Monk tracks on me in the eighties (though recorded in the fifties), and they left an indelible mark, influencing my understanding of music and art and even guiding the naming of my “Call It Thing” show. With deliberately vague song titles like “Think of One” and “Let’s Call This”, he gave an inspiring example of art that defied labelling.

Tom Waits – Small Change (Asylum), Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and Frank’s Wild Years (Island) (among many others... Tom Waits began as a remarkable troubadour with a fantastic gift for poetry and eventually seized upon a gutsy experimentalism that found him seeking out the experimental musical instruments of Harry Partch and eventually constructing his own evolving and experimental means of sonic expression that never lost hold of the roots of American music. My buddy Dave turned me on to Small Change.

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (Enigma/ Blast First)

Mark Melnick (of “Dancing with Mark Melnick and Jimmy Swaggart”, the then-Thursday Gothic Blimp Works, the show that came on right before mine in 1988) guided me toward my first proper intro to Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley with this classic double album which defined the furthest edges of what could be safely called “Grunge” three years later. But what’s in a name?

Thanks to Missy Roback and Grant Miller for turning me onto Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donnelly, who, with Davod Narcizo and Leslie Langston (later Fred Abong on Ramona) produced great rock and roll as informed by Sylvia Plath as by Patti Smith and the Ronettes

Chuck D and Flava Flav at the height of their hip-hop powers, with explosive classics like “By The Time I Get To Arizona,” “Move,” “Shut Em Down,” and the remix of “Bring Tha Noize” with the band Anthrax, cementing the alliance between hip-hop and rock that would redefine the territories of both.

Marc Ribot – Rootless Cosmopolitans (Island)

On this album, session guitarist Marc Ribot (who worked with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and beat poet Allen Ginsberg) dropped a memorable set of pre-grunge noise, including a memorable cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary” and the unforgettable ode to keeping the peace “Have aa Nice Day”

Happy Flowers – I Crush Bozo (Homestead Records)

The late, great Dave Zaluda turned me on to this band whose track “Fever Dream” demanded to be played and replayed. The track’s protagonist screams for his mom and dad while hallucinating being attacked by “those green pillows from downstairs”. Unforgettable, as was their follow up Oof! which featured “I Saw My Picture on a Milk Carton” and the lease-breaking classic “I Said I Wanna Watch Cartoons.”

John Trubee and the Ugly Janitors of America – The Communists Are Coming to Kill Us! (Enigma)

Briefly a labelmate with the more commonly remembered Sonic Youth, Trubee aggressively marked his territory as a dangerous and memorably offensive artist in the age of Reagan and Bush 41. Crank calls that would not be in fashion until the Jerky Boys shared album space with tunes with memorable titles like “Shove the Plastic Down My Throat.” A musical suggestion from my friend Roy, one of many.

Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend (Zoo)

Matthew Sweet reset his career after leaving A&M label and set a new high bar in guitar pop and songwriting, with free-flying guitar solos and beautiful vocal harmonies.

PJ Harvey – Dry (Indigo/ Too Pure)

The first album from Polly Jane Harvey arrived with a unique voice, great songwriting and a fantastic rhythm section.

Jeff Buckley – Grace (Columbia)

The brilliant soaring voice of Jeff Buckley was silenced far too soon, but not before he struck this classic set

Listen for three hours of new and rare sounds every Friday on the Friday Gothic Blimp Works- “Call It Thing” At Midnight after Friday Accent on Jazz.

Iron and Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog (Sub Pop)

Sam Bush (aka Iron and Wine) showed up on my radar with this brilliant album last year, a beautiful and lyrically daring song cycle incorporating themes of religion and change in one of the more forward thinking albums of recent years.

Tune in to Call It Thing, the Friday Gothic Blimp Works, Fridays from midnight to three after Friday Accent on Jazz at 91.3 FM WWUH, 89.9 WAPJ Torrington and wwuh.org..

Join me as we explore the diverse and interesting world of “the blues” every Monday night at 9 PM on WWUH’s long running blues show, Blue Monday.

Hawks and WWUH Prove Championship Pair

Hawks and WWUH

Prove Championship Pair

Hawks Women's Basketball on WWUH: Building Upon History

Jennifer Rizzotti has built the University of Hartford women's basketball program into one of the nation's up-and-coming programs. This remarkable story will continue to unfold in November and WWUH will be there to capture all the action live.

Hartford has appeared in postseason play five of the past seven years. The Hawks reached the round of 32 in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, defeating Syracuse in the opening round in Baton Rouge, LA. The program has recorded three-consecutive 25-win seasons while continuously upgrading its schedule to include an increasing number of teams from power conferences.

The year ahead will see the Hawks face the likes of Duke, Ohio State, Connecticut, George Washington, Louisville and Bowling Green. Of the 13 non-conference games, the Hawks have the chance to face seven teams who qualified for the NCAA Tournament a year ago, including final four member Connecticut. The Hawks will participate in two regular season tournament, the first at DePaul with Duke and Southern University and the second at George Washington with Liberty and South Alabama.

Amy Lawrence will begin her first season as the voice of the Hawks, replacing long-time announcer Jon Easterbrook who retired from announcing in May. Lawrence is one of a handful of female play-by-play announcers in the US. She comes to Hartford after serving in the same role at Rhode Island for the last four seasons and as a fill-in host for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. She will be joined by Brian Irizarry also beginning his first season with Hartford. Irizarry comes to Hartford by-way of the Connecticut Defenders minor league baseball team in Norwich, CT, where he serves as the play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants affiliate.

2008/2009

WWUH Broadcast Schedule (partial listing, more to be announced)

DateDayOpponentTime

Nov. 15 Saturday Dartmouth# 2:00pm.

Nov. 18 Tuesday Providence# 7:00pm.

Nov. 21 Friday Duke (at DePaul Tournament) TBA

Nov. 22 Saturday DePaul or Southern U (@ DePaul Tuornament)TBA

Nov. 25 Tuesday Ohio State TBA

Nov. 28 Friday Liberty (@ George Washington Tournament)3:00pm.

Nov. 29 Saturday George Washington or South Alabama (@GW Tournament)3:00pm or 5:30pm

Dec 3 Wednesday Quinnipiac 8:00pm.

Dec 6 Saturday Saint Joseph's# 2:00pm.

Dec 10 Wednesday Louisville TBA

Dec. 21 Sunday Bowling Green 2:00pm..

Dec. 31 Wednesday UConn 12:00pm.

Feb. 15 Sunday Marist# 1:00pm.

ALL TIMES EASTERN

Broadcasts start 10 minutes before the hour with a pre-game show (as noted above)

# - at The Chase Family Arena in the Sports Center at the University of Hartford

Notes from Celtic Airs

With your host - Steve DieterichNovember and December 2008

As fall gives way to winter, I hope you’ll plan to spend a warm, entertaining night at a WWUH/Celtic Airs concert. There’s no better way to enjoy the excitement of Irish traditional music than live, in person, and there’s no better place in southern New England than the University of Hartford’s Wilde Auditorium.

On November 14th, you’ll get a chance to experience Bua, an exciting quintet of musicians based in Chicago. Bua means talent in Irish, an apt name for a group that includes four All Ireland winners!! In 2006 the Irish American News named them “New Group of the Year” and in 2007, Irish Music Magazine proclaimed them “North American Group of the Year.” Band members range in age from 22 to 36. Though fairly young, Irish Music Magazine described their music as reminiscent of the great bands that began the Irish traditional revival of the late 1960’s-early 1970’s including DeDannan, Planxty and the Bothy Band.

The band’s origins are in Chicago, a city known around the world for its Irish music, where I believe you’ll find the larges population of Irish musicians in America! Founding member Jackie Moran estimates there are more than 15 ongoing sessions each week in Chicago as well as the formal gigs that occur in a variety of clubs and pubs. There’s obviously LOTS of talent to draw from when forming an Irish band in Chicago!!

It was 2001 when Jackie Moran and Christy Bain started Bua (then called Gan Bua), about the same time Jimmy Keane was putting together another Chicago based ensemble called Bohola, previous guests in the Celtic Airs concert series. Jackie and Christy remain a constant, though the remainder of the band has evolved over the ensuing seven years and now comprises Sean Garvey, Brian Hart and Brian Miller.

Jackie Moran (bodhran, percussion, and banjo) is certainly America’s most well known, in demand, bodhran (Irish frame drum) player. Born in County Tipperary, his family came to the United States when he was ten years old. By seventeen, he was already a professional musician, performing with a popular Chicago Irish band called The Drovers. Since then, he has toured with Riverdance and the Trinity Irish Dance Company. In addition to his time with Bua, he is an active member of Belgium based Irish traditional band Comas. He is an All Ireland champion many times over on the bodhran.

Christy Bain (fiddle) was born in Chicago to Irish parents and grew up in a home where Irish traditional music was frequently played and enjoyed. He has since lived in Ireland and Wales and is currently a member of Robin Huw Bowen’s very popular Welsh quartet Crasdant. Despite this busy schedule, he found time to win the All Ireland Duet Championship.

Sean Gavin (uillean pipes, flute, tin whistle) was born in Detroit, son of well known County Clare fiddler Mick Gavin. At age ten, he was already developing his talent on flute and whistle and by fourteen had taken up the difficult challenge of the uillean pipes (Irish for “elbow pipes” as they are powered by an elbow pumped bellows.) He advanced quickly up the ranks and eventually won All Ireland Championships on flute and uillean pipes.

Brian Hart (vocals, concertina, tin whistle) brings a rich, full, tenor voice to the band. His vocal style is reminiscent of Andy Irvine. A native of St Louis, he was dedicated to Irish traditional music at an early age, so much so that he became fluent in the Irish language. He is the youngest and first American to win an All Ireland Senior Men’s Championship in Ballad Singing.

Brian Miller (guitar, vocals) is a well respected guitarist who slips easily from rhythm to lead and back again with nary a hitch. He lends his voice in pleasing harmony to that of Brian Hart.

Bua blends tunes and songs into a wonderful musical collage, with unmistakable and infectious energy at every performance. After enjoying their show at the 2007 Milwaukee Irish Festival (most prestigious Irish fest in America), Bill Margeson of The Irish American News said “Bua plays powerful, simultaneously pure and innovative, traditional music at it’s most exciting.” Irish Music Magazine said “Bua is the essence of what a superb Irish traditional band should be.”

I strongly encourage you to meet and greet Bua on November 14th in the Wilde Auditorium. A great night of Irish music is in store for all in attendance!! Tickets for the Celtic Airs Concert Series can only be purchased through the University of Hartford Box Office, open Monday-Friday 10:00 AM till 6:00 PM. Call them at 1-800-274-8587 or 768-4228. On line purchases can be made at www.hartford.edu/hartt. Proceeds of the Celtic Airs Concert Series support commercial free programming at WWUH radio.

Please note, there is no December holiday concert scheduled this year, so the Bua concert is your last chance to get a dose of great Irish music in 2008.

Celtic Airs can be heard on WWUH, 91.3 FM Tuesdays 6:00-9:00 AM. I look forward to entertaining you with the newest Celtic releases mixed with a selection of your old favorites. Thanks to my loyal listeners and faithful concert goers for insuring the ongoing success of the program and concert series.

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera

Sunday NOVEMBER 2ND: Today in the traditional Roman Catholic Church calendar is All Souls' Day, following All Saints' Day and All Hallows' Eve. The souls of the dear departed are honored on this sacred feast and a Requiem Mass is called for. I have two musical requiems to offer you. Johannes Brahms' Ein Dentsches Requiem (1868) is his single longest composition. It seems he wrote it with his recently deceased mother in mind, and both the German language text, drawn from passages in the Lutheran Bible, and his music were intended to comfort the living who grieve over those they have lost. This is not a liturgical composition; in a broader sense it is Brahms' musical meditation upon death, incorporating choral music he wrote as far back as 1854. I presented "A German Requiem" on the airwaves only once before on Sunday, November 1, 1992. Simon Rattle recorded it for EMI live in concert in 2006 with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin Radio Chorus. The two vocal soloists are soprano Dorothea Röschmann and baritone Thomas Quasthoff.

Sweden's great organ virtuoso Otto Olsson (1879-1964) wrote a quantity of Lutheran church music in a conservative style more like that of the nineteenth century Central European masters Brahms, Bruckner, or Reger. In his youth he composed a setting of the standard Latin text of the Requiem for large chorus, orchestra, and four solo voices. Olsson suppressed his 1903 Requiem, even though it sounds as mature and beautifully melodic as his much performed Te Deum written only three years later. Olsson never got to hear his masterpiece. It was first publicly performed in 1976, twelve years after his death. Next came a 1993 record performance in the Gustav Vasa Lutheran church in Stockholm. Olsson played the organ there for fully half a century. A reviewer for Fanfare magazine, Haig Mardirosian, heard the rehearsals for the Olsson Festival performances of this work and the Credo Symphoniacum. In reviewing the Proprius CD release of the Requiem he compares Olsson's closing music with Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration." "The Olsson Requiem stirs its listeners," Mardirosian wrote (Fanfare, March/April, 1994). "…It deepens faith. It soothes the grieving. It assures us, the living of the light beyond death… Listen and be uplifted then." Anders Ohlson conducts the Gustav Vasa Oratorio Choir and the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra. Proprius reissued the 1993 festival recording in 2005.

SUNDay NOVEMBER 9TH: Just as Bizet did in his incidental music for Daudet's play L'Arlesienne (1872), Charles Gounod conjured up a tonal picture of the sunny South of France in his magical opera Mireille (1864). Mireille (pronounced "Mee-rey") is a much sought-after marriageable girl from the vicinity of Aries in Provence. She meets with a strange fate on the Feast of St. John or Midsummer Night. Gounod obtained permission from the author Friedrich Mistral to rework his long poem about Mireille, written in Provencal dialect, into a suitable opera libretto. Gounod's Mireille retains many folkloric touches from Mistral, including an element of the supernatural. After a lackluster premiere, Gounod and various other hands recomposed Mireille for a series of revivals. The EMI/Angel recording, release courtesy of French Pathé Marconi in 1980 on three LPs, returns to the original version of the score as reconstructed in 1939 by the conductor Henri Busser. Michel Plasson conducts Orchestra and Chorus of the Capitole de Toulouse, with soprano Mirella Freni in the title role and tenor Alain Vanzo as her chief suitor Vincent. The name Mirella is the Italian equivalent of the French Mireille. Those same Angel discs were last broadcast on Sunday, June 14, 1992.

SUNDay NOVEMBER 16TH: As his career moves along, America's most prominent composer in the minimalist style, Philip Glass (b. 1937), has turned out to be a prolific composer of operas and lyric theater-type music in general. Yet another one of his operatic ventures is Waiting for the Barbarians (1991), based upon the 1980 novel of the same name by South African writer John Coetzee. This is an allegorical work about the never ending war between oppressors and the oppressed, involving tensions along ethnic borders and the torture of prisoners. Glass has been creating socio-political operas like this going back to Satyagraha (1979), which dealt with Mahatma Gandhi's civil rights campaign in South Africa. (I broadcast the CBS masterworks recording of Satyagraha in LP format on Sunday, January 12, 1986.) Waiting for the Barbarians was released this year on two Orange Mountain CDs. This is a live-in-performance recording of the world premiere production mounted at the opera theater of the German city of Erfurt in 2005. Dennis Russell Davies conducted the chorus of the Erfurt Theater and the Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra. While this is a German production, what is sung is in English language following Christopher Hampton's libretto.

Sunday NOVEMBER 23RD: Longtime listeners to this program will remember my long ongoing series of broadcast of the early and lesser-known operas of Giuseppe Verdi, i.e. all the Verdi operas up to and including Luisa Miller (1849). The last one in the series was actually one from Verdi's middle period as a composer: Simon Boccanegra (1857/81), which sets forth his new breakaway operatic style. Verdi's first draft of Simon Boccanegra proved a failure in its premiere stage production, but he returned to it years later after he had written great successes like Don Carlos and Aida, and with the help of the astute librettist Arrigo Boito he reworked it into the form in which we know it today. Many passages of the improved score of Simon Boccanegrarank with the best music Verdi ever wrote in its dramatic passion and subtle tonal texture. On Sunday, June 5, 1994 I broadcast a classic recording of this work, issued in 1958 in the US on three EMI/Capitol LPs in early stereo sound. Gabriele Santini conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Rome Opera with a cast of singers whose voices are now legendary. Foremost among them is Tito Gobbi (arguably the greatest Italian baritone of all time) as Simon the Genoese seafarer turned political conspirator, destined to become the Doge of the city of Genoa. The incomparable diva soprano Victoria de los Angeles is heard as Simon's daughter Maria. You hear that same classic recording again today.

Sunday NOVEMBER 30TH: George Frideric Handel's Alexander's Feast is just the thing to listen to at Thanksgiving time since the oratorio describes a famous feast in classical antiquity. I have programmed recordings of it frequently on the Sunday next to Thanksgiving in years past. As originally given in 1736, Handel's musical setting of the poem by Dryden did not quite make a full evening's entertainment, so the composer augmented his score with an entire concerto grosso by way of an overture, and inserted two solo concertos, for organ and harp respectively, acting as interludes between the two long parts of the sung music, and after all that he offered up an Italian language cantata. All of this was performed in praise of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, who in Dryden's ode pushes aside the excesses of Alexander's pagan festivities. (In the traditional Christian calendar the Feast of St. Cecilia also November 21.) In the 1991 Collins Classics issue of Alexander's Feast conductor Harry Christophers has remained true to the first version of the score. We get to hear the solo instrumental works in their proper place, with the customary closing chorus to the words of Newburgh Hamilton, but the Italian cantata has been omitted. Christophers leads his own choral group, The Sixteen, with an ensemble of period instrumentalists, not to mention the vocal soloists, soprano Nancy Argenta, tenor Ian Partridge, and bass Michael George. These two Collins Classics CDs were last broadcast on this program on Sunday, November 30, 1997. This same recording was scheduled for rebroadcast on Sunday, November 26, 2006 but had been preempted so I take the opportunity to present it again today.

Sunday DECEMBER 7TH: St. Nicholas is one of the single most popular worthies in all Christendom. Many quaint stories are told about the fourth century bishop of Myra. He is the figure behind our contemporary image of Santa Claus. His feast day is December sixth. On which every Sunday falls closest that date I like to present some musical piece in his honor. Several times before I have aired the 1982 Music Masters recording of a twelfth century at liturgical drama about his life. Today comes the Saint Nicolas cantata of Benjamin Britten (1948). This, too, is a species of sacred drama originally intended for performance by a combined choir of voices from three English boys' schools and one girls' school, accompanied by piano, organ, strings, and percussion. A solo tenor takes the part of the Saint, singing words by Eric Corzier. When the composer himself recorded Saint Nicolas for Decca in 1957 his lover, tenor Peter Pears, took the title rôle. Britten directed the Aldeburgh Festival Choir and Orchestra, with young singers from schools thereabout. Decca remastered the early stereo tapings for reissued on a single CD in 2005 as part of a multi-disc set, "Britten conducts Britten."

There will be time remaining for a short operatic work by a contemporary American composer. Broadcast of this one-act piece commemorates another composer, John Lennon of Beatles fame, who was murdered by a loony fan on December 8, 1980 in New York City near the scene set in Michael Torke's Strawberry Fields (1999). In Central Park there is a circular mosaic monument, "Imagine," dedicated to Lennon's memory. Torke has imagined an aged opera fan, a lady of quality, sitting beside Lennon's monument, imagining that she is at the opera. Various passersby try to talk her out of her delusion. While the lady knows who Verdi is, she knows nothing of John Lennon. Michael Torke (b. 1962) lives and composes in New York City. In 1998 he was appointed Associate Composer for the Scottish National Orchestra. In Strawberry Fields, David Allan Miller conducts the Albany Pro Musica instrumentalists and nine singers. Torke's chamber opera was released on a single compact disc through his own Ecstatic Records label.

Sunday DECEMBER 14th: I regularly feature historic recordings, but this will be only the third time in more than a quarter-century of lyric theater broadcasting when I will again be presenting one that originated at Gylndebourne. When it was first recorded in festival production there in 1935, Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte (1790) was virtually unknown on the operatic stage. On Sunday, December 27, 1987, I broadcast the Seraphim LP reissue of the monaural 78 rpm recording of Cosi with Fritz Busch conducting. Only one year prior to that wealthy English blue blood John Christie finished building his own opera house on the ancestral estate at Glyndeborune, Sussex, not far South of London. Christie was committed to the revival of Mozart's neglected operatic masterworks. His wife soprano Audrey Mildmay sang in early productions of them. Glyndebourne festivals became the fixture of the international opera scene. I next broadcast Mozart's Don Giovanni (1787) taped at the 1955 Festival, which RCA Victor picked up for release stateside on mono hi-fi LPs (Sunday, October 14, 1990). Now along comes a digitally remastered CD issue of early stereo sound tapings of Le Nozze di Figaro (1786) made live-in-performance at the 1962 festival. Silvio Varviso was on the podium directing the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Chorus. And what a singing cast! Soprano Mirella Fieni is Susannna, Leyla Gencer is the Countess, and Edith Mathis takes the breeches role of Cherubino. Baritone Heinz Blankenburg is Figaro and Gabriel Bacquier portrays Count Almaviva. Glyndebourne Enterprises, Ltd. released the 1962 "Marriage of Figaro" on three silver discs in 2008.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 21ST: It's often said that the Christmas holiday season belongs to the children. With that truism in mind I try to program a "children's opera" on one of the Sundays in December. Rachel Portman's "Magical Opera" The Little Prince, which premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 2003, is based on the enormously popular book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. First published in 1946, Le Petit Prince quickly established itself as a children's classic. Portman was convinced it was perfect material for an opera that would appeal to audiences of all ages, like Humperdinck's fairytale opera Hansel und Gretel. She conceived The Little Prince as a lyric stage work specifically to be performed by children. When it was filmed by BBC, a talent search was conducted throughout Britain to find the best child performers. BBC recorded their film production at Abbey Road Studios, London in 2004, with David Charles Abell conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra. The Little Prince soundtrack came out on two Sony classical CDs.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 28TH: Let's spend the Christmas holidays with Luciano Pavarotti! The superstar Italian tenor has been gone now for a year or two, but his memory lives on in the wealth of recordings of his singular voice. Pavarotti sang Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme (1896) to great acclaim. He was recorded in that rôle for Decca/London in 1972, paired with soprano Mirella Freni as Mimi. La Boheme is certainly a Christmas opera. Its first two acts take place on Christmas Eve, 1830 in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Also in the cast is Rolando Panerai as the painter Marcello, Nicolia Ghiaurov as the philosopher Colline, and Michel Senechal as the state councillor Alcindoro. Herbert von Karajan conducts the Berlin Philharmonic and chorus of the German Opera of Berlin. Decca has reissued Puccini's four warhorses of the repertoire starring Pavarotti in a boxed set of CDs. After La Boheme Pavarotti will continue to regale us with seasonal favorites drawn from his extensive discography.

As the year rolls around to its conclusion I remember with gratitude those who have been of so much help to me in handling this timeslot in 2008. Year after year Rob Meehan keeps on loaning me CDs from his enormous collection. He's a former classics deejay on this station going back to the 1970s (This year he did one show in another classical music timeslot on WWUH.) As a record collector he specializes in the alternative musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For this two-month period of programming Rob loaned me Michael Torke's Strawberry Fields and Rachel Portman's The Little Prince. Thanks also to my colleague Bob Walsh for substituting for me on a couple of Sundays as he has done in years past. Lastly, thanks to Vickie Hadge of Virtually Done by Vickie for preparing these notes for publication in our WWUH Program Guide. Vickie, and before for Kerry Atkins of Keystrokes by Kerry, made it possible for me to meet every bimonthly Guide deadline over the long

Thursday Evening Classics

Thursday Evening Classics

Composer Capsules for

November and December 2008

November 6

John Philip Sousa

Birth: November 6, 1854 in Washington, DC

Death: March 6, 1932 in Reading, PA

John Philip Sousa, “The March King”, enjoyed a long and successful career as bandmaster and composer and did more than anyone to elevate the reputation of the military wind band. He wrote his marches with beautiful melody and unusual harmonies, raising them beyond mere parade music. He was also a founder of ASCAP and helped develop the sousaphone, a large tuba which features in parade bands. As a youth growing up amidst the American Civil War, sounds of military bands were constantly in the air. His first musical training was on the violin, and his father instructed him on several wind instruments. At 13 he nearly ran off with a visiting circus, however, his astute father, himself a bandsman, caught wind of the scheme and arranged an apprenticeship in the Marine Corps Band for his son. Young John honed his skills in that musical organization called the "President's Own." He composed his first march, Salutation, at age 16. At 18, Sousa began to play violin in various theater orchestras. In 1880, Sousa was appointed leader of the Marine Corps Band, which he would serve for 12 years under five presidents. During the next 2 decades, he composed some of America’s most famous marches – Semper Fidelis, The Washington Post, The Thunderer, High School Cadets, El Capitan, The Liberty Bell, King Cotton, Hands Across the Sea and, most notably, The Stars and Stripes Forever. In 1892 Sousa, resigned his position with the Marine Corps and organized his own band, known simply as Sousa's Band. Through national and national tours, the band's success was nothing short of phenomenal, Sousa receiving many honors and decorations from the royal families of Great Britain and Europe. With the outbreak of World War I, however, Sousa put aside civilian activity and assumed command of all naval bands. In 1920, he reorganized his band and resumed touring. Sousa died while en route to conduct a high school band in Reading, PA.

Ignace Jan Paderewski

Birth: November 6, 1860 in Kurylowka, Poland

Death: June 29, 1941 in New York, NY

Born to a well-off, cultivated family, Paderewski received piano lessons from an early age and entered the Warsaw Music Institute before he was 12 to study piano, harmony, and counterpoint. His progress on the piano was not rapid, and his teacher advised him to study another instrument. He tried the flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and finally the trombone, which he played in the conservatory orchestra. Upon graduation, the Institute engaged him as a piano teacher. By 1880 he was married and a year later found himself a widower and father of a son. Forsaking Warsaw for cosmopolitan Berlin, Paderewski pursued composition studies between 1881 – 1883 while moving in the social circles of the greatest musicians of the day, including Anton Rubinstein and a young Richard Strauss. In Berlin he again was advised that his talent was insufficient for a career, but undaunted, he went to Vienna to study with Theodor Leschetizky, the most famous teacher of the time. Here too he found little encouragement because the teacher felt that it was too late for the 24-year-old pianist to develop a dependable technique. However, during three intensive years with Leschetizky, Paderewski persisted and practiced prodigiously and transformed his mediocre ability into a world-class technique. Finally, his highly successful debut in Vienna launched a career that made him for the next 50 years the best-known and highest-paid pianist of all time. But well before his Vienna debut, Paderewski possessed the hypnotic, leonine, compelling presence that typified his playing and brought him world fame. He made appearances in London and began his first North American tour in 1891, giving over 100 concerts in the U.S. and Canada — a grueling schedule that was annually repeated. Other tours took him to South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as the greater and lesser cities of Europe. He developed a tremendous following and amassed a fortune estimated at $10 million. His success was due in part to his personal magnetism. He was strikingly handsome, tall, and gracious, crowned with a mane of golden-reddish hair. His grand scale of living also made him a glamorous figure. He traveled all over America in his private railway car.. Besides his piano, his entourage consisted of his piano tuner, secretary, valet, doctor, and chef, as well as his wife, her attendants, and dog. He maintained princely establishments in Switzerland and California, where he entertained continually and lavishly. Box office success was translated into good deeds, sponsorship of competitions, and during World War I, the Polish Victims Relief Fund. In 1919, he was elected prime minister of an independent Poland and represented his country at the Paris Peace Conference, where he successfully convinced the other statesmen that a united Poland was necessary. He attended the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the opening sessions of the League of Nations. He proved to be a masterful orator in French and English, as well as in Polish and German. He resumed his concert career in 1922, touring into old age and frailty to raise funds for the Polish cause in the wake of the Nazi invasion in 1939. He died in New York in 1941, and was given a hero's burial in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1992, his body was brought to Warsaw and placed in St. John's Cathedral..

November 13

George Whitefield Chadwick

Birth: November 13, 1854 in Lowell, MA

Death: April 4, 1931 in Boston, MA

Composer, conductor and director of the New England Conservatory of Music, Chadwick left a rich musical legacy for America. In a home where both his parents were amateur musicians, Chadwick received his first instruction in piano and harmony from his brother. He continued formal studies at the New England Conservatory in 1872. However, he didn't have enough money to complete his degree, so he worked in his father's insurance business for about three years. At age 21 he decided to pursue a career as a music educator and composer. After teaching at Olivet College, he traveled to Germany to attend the Leipzig Conservatory where he studied with Carl Reinecke and with Josef Rheinberger in Munich. His graduation piece from the Leipzig Conservatory was the Rip Van Winkle Overture, which was premiered at the Conservatory and later became his first composition performed in America. Returning to the United States in 1880, Chadwick set up a private teaching studio in Boston. Two years later he took a post as instructor in harmony and composition at the New England Conservatory. He also became the organist at Boston's South Congregational Church, a post he held for 17 years. In his years at the New England Conservatory, Chadwick instructed many of the most important of the next generation of American composers, such as Horatio Parker, William Grant Still, Henry Hadley, E. B. Hill, Daniel Gregory Mason, and Frederick Converse. As director of the Conservatory from 1897 until his death in 1931, Chadwick instituted some noteworthy changes, reforming the curriculum and organizing an opera workshop and a student orchestra. Chadwick was much in demand as a conductor, appearing frequently with U.S. orchestras. He also directed music festivals in Springfield and Worcester. Even with all this activity, he still managed to compose, writing five operas, three symphonies, five string quartets, and a variety of other orchestral and chamber works. The conservatism of his music, however, led to its falling out of favor, as musical tastes changed dramatically in the early 20th century. Chadwick was much honored during his lifetime. As early as 1897 he received an honorary degree from Yale University and eight years later he received another from Tufts College. His Symphony #3 won him a prize from the National Conservatory in New York In 1928, he was presented a gold medal by the Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1930 a pair of music festivals (at the New England Conservatory and the Eastman School) marked the 50th anniversary of his return to the United States from his European studies.

November 27

Franz Krommer

Birth: November 27, 1759 in Kamenice, Moravia

Death: January 8, 1831 in Vienna, Austria

Although highly regarded by his contemporaries, Krommer’s reputation has largely been overshadowed by the great Beethoven. A rival of Beethoven in the early 19th century, Krommer’s string quartets were compared favorably with those of Haydn. Krommer showed unusual talent early in his life and began violin and organ studies in 1774 with his uncle, Anton Matthias Krommer, composer and choirmaster at Turan. Through his uncle, Krommer became the temporary organist at Turan. Franz also spent a decade teaching himself theory and composition. After failing to find employment in Vienna, he obtained a post as a violinist in the Court orchestra of the Duke of Styrum in 1786. In 1788, Krommer was appointed music director of the Duke's orchestra, but he left the post in 1790 to become concertmaster at the Pecs Cathedral. He returned to Vienna in 1795, where as a composer with a growing reputation, he is thought to have taught composition for the next three years. In 1798, he was appointed concertmaster at the court of Duke Ignaz Fuchs, where he remained until 1810. This dozen-year period would prove a fertile one for Krommer, with the publication of his earliest symphonies, concertos, and nearly 50 of his more than 70 string quartets. In 1811, Krommer was appointed ballet concertmaster at the Vienna Hoftheater. Four years later, he accepted a post with Emperor Franz I, which required much travel. Krommer accompanied the Hapsburg ruler to France and Italy over the next two years. In 1818, Krommer was promoted to the rank of court composer and director of chamber music under Franz I, succeeding Leopold Kozeluch. He served in this post until his death in 1831.

December 4

Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty

Birth: December 4, 1879 in Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland

Death: February 19, 1941 in Brighton, England

Harty was a well-respected church organist, composer, conductor, and piano accompanist who was knighted for his services to music. “Bertie” learned viola, piano, and counterpoint from his father, the local church organist. Still a teenager, Harty was engaged as organist in Bray, near Dublin. In 1897 Harty became the official accompanist at a national the Feis Ceoil competitive music festival, where he first accompanied and befriended John McCormack. Harty entered his own String Quartet #1 in the composition competition in 1900 and entered chamber or orchestral works annually after that, winning in 1904 with his Irish Symphony. Harty had moved to London in 1900 and became known for his skillful accompaniment of vocalists and instrumentalists, such as Joseph Szigeti and Fritz Kreisler. After the success of his conducting premiere, he began conducting in England, while his compositions continued to win prizes. He was named permanent conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in 1920. During his tenure, he introduced the music of Bax, Sibelius, Casella, Berlioz, Moeran, and Strauss to Manchester audiences and expanded the orchestra's reputation throughout the country. He also conducted the English premieres of Mahler's Symphony #9 and Shostakovich's Symphony #1, as well as the world premiere of Constant Lambert's The Rio Grande. His temperament was said to be somewhat unpredictable, which led to his acrimonious resignation in 1933. From 1932 to 1935, he was conductor-in-chief of the London Symphony Orchestra, but it was felt that his box-office appeal wasn't sufficient to keep him on, despite his efforts to raise the performance standards of the orchestra. He spent the remainder of his life guest conducting, despite the loss of his right eye from a brain tumor suffered in 1936. Harty’s works are similar in style to those of the late- and post-Romantics, infused with the rhythms and sounds of Irish folk tunes. The Irish Symphony and the Comedy Overture remain his most popular and more frequently recorded pieces.

December 11

Hector Berlioz

Birth: December 11, 1803 in Cote-Saint-Andre, France

Death: March 8, 1869 in Paris, France

Berlioz developed a profound affinity for music and literature as a child and would honor both in his passionate, original compositions. Sent to Paris at 17 to study medicine, he was enchanted by Gluck's operas, and decided instead to become a composer. With his father's reluctant consent, Berlioz entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1826. An obsessive artist, he entered the Prix de Rome competition each year until he won the in 1830. In 1827, he attended a performance of Hamlet that included Harriet Smithson as Ophelia. He immediately became infatuated with both actress and playwright. He began to send Harriet messages, but she considered Berlioz's letters so overly passionate that she refused his advances. In response, he composed the unconventional Symphonie Fantastique, a work which would bring Berlioz much fame and notoriety. He entered into a relationship with, and subsequently became engaged to, Camille Moke, despite the symphony being inspired by his fixation with Smithson. In 1832, Berlioz organized a concert, featuring his Symphonie Fantastique. Harriet Smithson was in the audience. They were introduced days later and married on October 3, 1833. Berlioz settled into a pattern which he maintained for more than a decade, writing reviews, organizing concerts, and composing a series of visionary masterpieces including Harold en Italie (for Paganini), the Requiem, and the opera, Benvenuto Cellini, which was a crushing fiasco. At year's end, the dying Paganini made Berlioz a gift of 20,000 francs, enabling him to devote nearly a year to the composition of his "dramatic symphony," Roméo et Juliette. Then, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the July Revolution, came the Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale and shortly thereafter,the exquisite Les Nuits d'été. The next decade would produce his La Damnation de Faust and the massive Te Deum. But this was a difficult time for Berlioz, as his marriage failed to bring him the happiness he desired. Despite concert tours throughout Europe, his expense situation was catastrophic, and only a successful concert tour to St. Petersburg saved him from financial ruin. Elected to the Institut de France in 1855, he started receiving a members' stipend, and this provided him with a degree of financial security. Consequently, Berlioz was able to devote himself to the summit of his career, his vast opera, Les Troyens, based on Virgil's Aeneid. Though his health began to fail late in his life, Berlioz went on to conduct his works in Vienna and Cologne in 1866, and St. Petersburg and Moscow in the winter of 1867-1868.

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz

Birth: December 11, 1876 in Wiszniew, Lithuania

Death: February 8, 1909 in the Tatra Mountains, Poland

Had it not been for his tragic premature death, Karlowicz would conceivably have played a major role in the development of music in Poland during the first half of the 20th century. His father, Jan, was a distinguished linguist and ethnologist as well as a musician who had published articles on Polish folk music and had composed some songs and minor piano pieces. MieczysÏaw, the youngest of four children, began his musical education in Heidelberg, where he received violin lessons after the family had left Lithuania in 1882. After spending five years traveling in Europe with some time in Dresden and Prague, the KarÏowicz family finally settled in Warsaw, where Mieczyslaw continued his violin studies. Karlowicz’s first works including several songs and short pieces for violin and piano, remained unpublished and were destroyed during the bombing of Warsaw in 1939. With Poland in political turmoil, KarÏowicz moved to Berlin in 1895 and concentrated on composition. KarÏowicz firmly sided with the progressive neo-romantics, including Wagner and Richard Strauss, against the classical conservatism of Brahms and his supporters. Aside from Strauss, KarÏowicz was also drawn to the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky and Grieg, but he was uncompromisingly dismissive of many others, including such classical masters as Beethoven. Karlowicz’s own compositions from his student days in Berlin included a Serenade for Strings Op 2, and The White Dove Op 6. He also started work on his Symphony in e ‘Rebirth’ Op 7, which was completed in Warsaw in 1902. Having returned to Warsaw in 1901, Karlowicz found himself at odds with the reactionary Polish musical establishment which was trying to reassert itself. KarÏowicz was insistent that more Polish music be programmed for the newly-formed Philharmonia, under the directorship of the composer and violinist Emil MÏynarski. After a dispute with MÏynarski, he refused to have his own works performed. Thus Karlowicz had to arrange and promote his own concerts. Berlin was the venue for the first performance of his symphony, together with the music for The White Dove, and his latest work to date, the Violin Concerto in A Op 8. Karlowicz’s reputation as a composer, however, rests with the six symphonic poems he produced between 1903 and 1909. In 1906 KarÏowicz visited Paris, and then spent the winter in Leipzig, where he was able to study conducting at Artur Nikisch’s rehearsals. In the summer months he moved to Zakopane, in the Polish Highlands, and he eventually made this his permanent home, preferring the lonely solitude and remote beauty of the Tatra Mountains, where he was able to pursue his other interests—walking, cycling, skiing and photography. It was while out skiing that he was killed by an avalanche on February 8, 1909.

Elliott Cook Carter

Birth: December 11, 1908 in New York City, NY

Carter studied at the Horace Mann School and at Harvard, where he obtained a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Music. From Harvard, he went to Paris, studying at the Ecole Normale de Musique and taking private lessons with Nadia Boulanger. Carter had an interest in modern music almost from the beginning, but he also sang in a madrigal group and conducted choral concerts in Paris, and has pursued interests in mathematics, literature, and languages. After his return to the U.S., he served as the musical director of the Ballet Caravan from 1937 to 1939. Throughout the next 4 decades, Carter held an impressive variety of teaching posts at, among others, the Peabody Conservatory, Columbia University, Yale University, the American Academy in Rome and the Juilliard School. Carter has also been the recipient of many honors and awards, including honorary doctorates from almost a dozen universities, many foundation grants, a Prix de Rome, two Guggenheim fellowships, and Pulitzer Prizes for his second and third string quartets. His ballet Pocahontas and the Holiday Overture are representative of Carter's early style, a fusion of Stravinsky's neo-Classicism and the American populism of Copland. Subsequent works, such as the Piano Sonata and the Cello Sonata, exhibit more dissonance and rhythmic complexity. Carter developed his notion of "metrical modulation," in which one tempo leads gradually to another by changing the note values in different voices of the ensemble. His String Quartet #1 and the Variations for Orchestra employ this processand the Double Concerto and the String Quartet #2 develop those ideas further. Carter has written five string quartets, along with a variety of symphonic works, concertos, chamber and solo pieces and, in the late '70s and early '80s, a handful of vocal works. Carter astounded the music world by creating his first opera, What Next?, at the age of 90. One of the most significant post-World War II American composers, Elliott Carter remains a forceful and eloquent voice at age 100.

December 18

Edward MacDowell

Birth: December 18, 1860 in Manhattan, NY

Death: January 23, 1908 in New York, NY

MacDowell was the son of a milkman and a musically inclined mother. At eight, MacDowell began piano lessons with a boarder in the home, Juan Buitrago. Through Buitrago, MacDowell met pianist and international concert star Teresa Carreño, who also provided him with instruction and encouragement. In the late 19th century, the avenue to a musical education was in Europe. Thus, MacDowell and his mother went to Paris in 1877 and MacDowell enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. But a year later, MacDowell heard Nikolai Rubinstein play the first Tchaikovsky piano concerto, and with that, he decided to leave Paris and study in Germany. He went first to Stuttgart, then Wiesbaden, and finally to Frankfurt where he studied with Joachim Raff and concertized in the presence of Franz Liszt. MacDowell began to take in piano pupils of his own, and one of them, Margaret Nevins, became MacDowell's wife in 1884. At Liszt's insistence MacDowell began to pursue composition rather than performance, and his First and Second Modern Suites were widely successful on first publication. In 1888, MacDowell resettled in Boston, the emerging center of concert life in America. From this time until 1896 MacDowell enjoyed his greatest successes and patronage, and it is during this time that MacDowell wrote most of his music: the Second Piano Concerto, Indian Suite, Sonata Tragica, most of his songs, and the Woodland Sketches. In 1895, the MacDowells purchased a farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire, so that the fretful MacDowell could concentrate effectively on his work. In 1896, MacDowell was named head of the newly established music department at Columbia University, an important academic position at a major liberal arts college. MacDowell quickly won the admiration of his colleagues and students through his boundless energy and enthusiasm. However, in 1902 Columbia elected a new president, Nicholas Murray Butler, who did not share MacDowell's vision and sought to eliminate the music department altogether. This provoked a heated conflict between Butler and MacDowell that largely served to undermine the health of the short-tempered composer. That year, MacDowell resigned from Columbia, and afterward his health began to decline rapidly. He died on the Peterborough farm at age 47. In accordance with his own wishes, MacDowell's widow later converted the farm into an artist's colony, which has become the best-known and most respected environment of its kind in the United States.

December 25

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Birth: December 25, 1739 in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe

Death: June 10, 1799 in Paris, France

Joseph Boulogne, more commonly known as Saint-Georges, was the son a French Parliamentary councilor. Little is known about Boulogne's African-born mother and no records survive as to her early life. While he was young, his family moved to Saint Domingue (Haiti). It was there that he likely had his first violin lessons, under the direction of his father's plantation manager. When he was 10, the family moved again, this time to Paris. In Paris, Boulogne's life underwent an almost phenomenal change. He was introduced to a wide range of activities, including riding, dancing, swimming, skating, and fencing and he became a master swordsman, often regarded as the greatest in Europe during his prime. Before he turned 20, Boulogne took up violin studies under Leclair, and composition under Gossec. In 1769, Gossec appointed Boulogne as first violinist of the Concerts des Amateurs, the young composer's first professional post. But the real glory came in 1772, when he made his debut as soloist performing his own Op. 2 Violin Concerti. The audience was most impressed with the feeling and expression Boulogne put into performances of his technically demanding works. By 1773, Boulogne was a well-respected musician, and took over Gossec's post as director of the Concerts des Amateurs. His 1775 appointment as director of the Paris Opéra, unfortunately, was revoked after singers refused to work with him because of his race. However, he was largely responsible for the commissioning of Haydn's famous Paris Symphonies. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, the now-noble Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, joined the newly formed Republic and assembled a new military force in northern France. In 1791, he left music completely and became the captain of the National Guard in Lille. However, Saint-Georges was wrongfully accused of misappropriation of funds intended for the troops, and he was stripped of his command and imprisoned. Upon his release, he left France for Saint Domingue, after hearing of the slave rebellion. Saint-Georges returned to Paris in 1797 to resume his musical career, directing a new musical organization, Le Cercle de l'Harmonie. After two dismal years, Saint-Georges died a pauper, having given up his wealth and life to the Revolution. Saint-Georges is remembered mainly for his quartets and violin concerti, but his musical style was naturally suited to operatic and theatrical music, and it is believed that some operatic works of his have been lost to time.

WWUH Classical Programming

WWUH Classical Programming – November/December 2008

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera… Sundays 1:00 – 4:30 pm

Evening Classics… Weekdays 4:00 to 7:00/ 8:00 pm

Drake’s Village Brass Band… Mondays 7:00-8:00 pm

November

Sun

2

Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem; Olsson: Requiem

Mon

3

Gershwin: Of Thee I Sing. Let Them Eat Cake Drake's Village Brass Band - U. S. Air Force Band - Heritage to Horizons